After all the drama surrounding Moneyball earlier this year, Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s trilogy, The Informant!) has shrugged his shoulders of it and is moving onto another project, the bluntly titled Knockout. The film is a spy thriller that will see the true acting debut of female MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter, Gina Carano, and is described as being closer to La Femma Nakita and Kill Bill than Million Dollar Baby.

Knockout will be directed by Soderbergh, produced by Gregory Jacobs (Soderbergh’s long-time collaborator) written by Lem Dobbs (who’s written a couple of Soderbergh movies before) and financed/produced by Relativity Media.

Carano’s big-screen debut will see her playing, “a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who is given a second chance to use her skills for constructive purposes.” Soderbergh considers it an action film in the style of James Bond, as opposed to being set in and around the (fighting) ring like the aforementioned Million Dollar Baby.

Let’s run the bases real quick and recap the whole Moneyball fiasco(cue the movie-montage):

Oscar winner Steve Zaillian spun a script from Michael Lewis’s book about Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget. Sony picked it up, Brad Pitt and Steven Soderbergh hopped on board, Soderbergh retooled the script into something more along the lines of a documentary with “if it didn’t happen in real life, it won’t happen on the big screen” running through its veins. Sony bucked, the head of Sony, Amy Pascal pulled the plug the morning of the first day of shooting.  There.  Now we’re all on the same page (for more details, go here).

Today we have new details on Moneyball’s current status and a few words from its (almost) star, Brad Pitt.

This week:

Revenge of The Fallen meets Dawn of the Dinosaurs; it’ll take 6 years to see the last Airbender; Adams looks on as Batman fights Marky Mark; George Clooney leaves Warner Bros; The Green Hornet is delayed and Tony Scott, Denzel Washington and Chris Pine are stoppable.

Last week started off with the crazy news that Sony Chairman Amy Pascal had pulled the plug on Moneyball, Steven Soderbergh’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’s book about Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, mere hours before the film (which starred Brad Pitt as Beane, no less) was set to start shooting.

Well now that some dust has settled, Pascal is speaking up about the Moneyball fiasco, essentially trying to walk the tightrope of preserving her relationship with Soderbergh and Pitt while still maintaining that she made the right call.

Studio execs-in-training, pay attention and see how it’s done:

Like just about everybody these days, Hollywood is tightening its belt to weather the economic downturn, which basically translates to cutting loose any and every project that is not a guaranteed cash-cow, or doesn’t seem likely to strike gold.

Well, Sony Chairman Amy Pascal is flexing her executive muscle and showing that she isn’t afraid to make the hard choices for the (perceived) good of the studio: Pascal has pulled the plug on Moneyball, an adaptation of Michael Lewis’ baseball bestseller, starring $uperstar leading man Brad Pitt, and helmed by Ocean’s Eleven franchise director, Steven Soderbergh.

This week:

First there’s The Proposal and then there’s The Hangover; Moneyball gets thrown a curve-ball; Scream 4 isn’t Neve Campbell’s favorite scary movie; it looks like The A-Team won’t be Common and there’s an up and coming Red Dawn.

Yes, we’re a day late this week – blame it on flakey internet connections – moving on…

This week:

Brad Pitt plays Ball;  Mangold looks for thrills; does Nottingham have its Marian? Mickey Rourke attaches himself to St Vincent – with an old friend.

Sunday again and that means that it is time for the Weekend Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

We see who is top of the box office; Kevin Smith ups his budget and goes into space; Brad Pitt goes on an Odyssey and plays an Unfair Game; Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci do Life and Ronin zooms to the small screen.